DAB+ sound quality

[Panamax]

The last of my old tuners has recently lost the will to live and is unable to deliver some DAB stations. I believe this is because DAB has migrated to DAB+.

I'm led to believe one advantage of DAB+ is supposed to be stereo sound.

I only have one device capable of receiving DAB+ and linking its "line out" through my hifi systems results in sound that's at best mediocre. Frankly, Youtube is at least as good.

Is there an easy solution?

[FilH]

Can't remember the technicials, but dab is massively compressed audio. On my dab, you can see the starions bit rates and its usually low.

Thi some stations there end manage the audio output better than others.

Your best bet is you might want to look into the stations internet streams, as some have a reasonable rate as in 320kbs.


I have a majority fitzwilliam 3, that does both and FM and some otger stuff. And the same stations are beter via different sources.

[OutInTheShed]

We can't get DAB here.

If we want high quality sound from broadcast, then Freesat is our best bet.

With broadcast, you are always up against the engineers broadcasting it.
If most of your punters are listening in cars, there's not much point broadcasting ultra-high dynamic range, because half your listeners will change channei in the quiet bits.
There's also not much point in renting more bandwidth to use less compression, if your customers won't notice when they're listening in their Honda.

Our old Freesat box has an optical output. Add a £20 DAC and some broadcasts sound very good.
However the 'quality' of the broadcast would often be much improved if the DJ 'shut up and play the record'.
32bit audio with a 6dB music to drivel ratio...

[Mont Blanc]

DAB is fine for the car, or a portable radio.

But the bitrate of internet streamed audio (including radio stations) is often higher than DAB, so for home listening I wouldn't bother with DAB at all. Just stream all your radio stations from the internet.

[Panamax]

Some interesting thoughts here - thanks. Sounds as though DAB+ simply isn't good enough to be worth pursuing any further, stereo or not.

I'm not a techno-boffin but presumably they're applying more and more compression in order to squeeze more paying stations into the available bandwidth. Disappointing.

[Mont Blanc]

Panamax said:

Some interesting thoughts here - thanks. Sounds as though DAB+ simply isn't good enough to be worth pursuing any further, stereo or not.

I'm not a techno-boffin but presumably they're applying more and more compression in order to squeeze more paying stations into the available bandwidth. Disappointing.

You are correct. They quickly worked out years ago that consumers cared far more about choice of radio stations, and much less about any form of sound quality. Hence why there are almost hundreds of DAB stations crammed into the bandwidth in any metropolitan area, many with terribly compressed low-bitrate audio.

[Ed.Neumann]

Just get something that plays internet radio.

Nearly all streams are available at much higher rates and sound far better.

[N8CYL]

Very few DABplus stations are in stereo. Back to FM if you want stereo .
Supposed to have been high quality etc etc but not any more

[Biker 1]

As above - I wouldn't bother with DAB/DAB+ in a hifi system - its only good for a kitchen radio whilst cooking/washing up....
Plenty of internet radio stations with much better bandwidth

[Panamax]

My device can do internet radio as well as DAB+. I've now had a go at the same station on internet radio and, to be honest, the quality isn't much better, if at all, than DAB+.

I don't know if others share the same experience but in my case CD can still sound absolutely stunning.

[MC Bodge]

We had a DAB radio in the kitchen for years.

We now just stream iPlayer and Spotify from an Android tablet (though a 2.1 amp and speakers).

In the car, DAB is fine for speech, but music is noticeably poor, even compared with streaming via Bluetooth. 6Music is better than non-BBC stations, but still not great.

[Ed.Neumann]

Panamax said:

My device can do internet radio as well as DAB+. I've now had a go at the same station on internet radio and, to be honest, the quality isn't much better, if at all, than DAB+.

I don't know if others share the same experience but in my case CD can still sound absolutely stunning.

You need to add the hi res url yourself, the players still tend to default to the 128 or even worse, the 64kbps streams, you can chose up to lossless on many now....

http://radiobit.50webs.com


These are 320kbps...

https://www.webradiostreams.nl/streaming2.html#bbc


Loads of links out there to add new content.

[Mont Blanc]

Panamax said:

My device can do internet radio as well as DAB+. I've now had a go at the same station on internet radio and, to be honest, the quality isn't much better, if at all, than DAB+.

I don't know if others share the same experience but in my case CD can still sound absolutely stunning.

In my opinion, it is almost pointless to listen to radio stations if music (especially higher quality music) is what you are wanting.

Digital playlists and streaming services are now king. The advantages are:

CD quality (and better than CD quality - Hi-Res/Lossless)
No adverts
No annoying presenters/DJ's
Assemble your own playlists
Avoid any tracks/artists/genres you don't like

and so on.

I never listen to radio for music purposes anymore. If I want music either at home or in the car, or whilst out with my earphones, then I listen to streaming services (Apple Music in my case).

I only listen to radio when I want to listen to news/speech - LBC and Radio 4 etc.

[rottenegg]

DAB sounds OK in the car but I wouldn't bother with it in the home personally. A lot of radio stations are online now via apps which sound pretty good and aren't restricted by over the air bandwidth limitations.

[TheInternet]

OutInTheShed said:

With broadcast, you are always up against the engineers accountants broadcasting it.

DAB sound quality would be considerably better if the engineers made the decisions.

[Panamax]

Friday Night Rock Show? Oh yes, the joys of Tommy Vance on FM stereo, a huge leap from AM quality - to which we seem to have returned,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Lhg7CcEyYQ